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By Cathy Spalding
www.gentlespiritllamas.com
www.gentlespiritalpacas.com

4 Month Old Female Llama With Horses

Hi Colleen,

First and foremost, the little 4 month old you have is much too young to have been weaned and separated from her mother to be sold. For further information on weaning, please see my article on Weaning.

Additionally, she has not been allowed much opportunity in her short life to learn many 'llama ways' from her mother and the other herd members. She definitely needs a llama companion. Another female would be best and one that has been raised appropriately. As it is with most species, females interact and support other females differently than do a male and female. Finding a gelded male is certainly an option. It would be very important, however, that he is both fairly young and gelded or a little older gelded one who does not exhibit any breeding behavior. It is not impossible for a 6-month-old male to impregnate a 6-month-old female. At her exceptionally young age, without another llama companion she is very likely going to bond with you providing then an almost guarantee to go on to develop some serious and potentially dangerous behavioral problems as she matures. At best, she will not have any opportunity to learn about being a llama. Many are fully aware of those potentials in male babies but do not realize that under the right circumstances, females have the potential to become seriously dangerous as well.

Having this little baby girl in with horses is a bit dangerous for her. Most horses are not familiar with llamas and like yours, are afraid of them. Once used to them, they often become comfortable with llamas but there, unfortunately, still remains another problem -- horses far out weigh even the largest llama. If there should ever be an occasion for dispute between a llama and a horse, the llama can suffer serious injury. Llamas will spit. Horses pack a powerful kick.

I, personally, find it quite disturbing that anyone who knows anything about llamas would have – in good conscious – sold you a single llama particularly at such a very young age. They owe you (and this little gal) the responsibility to teach you the basics of llama behavior and how to care for her. Perhaps that is unlikely, however, given they felt comfortable to be offering a 4 month old single llama in the first place. I highly recommend you contact your local llama association and make a serious effort to connect with some experienced llama owners in your local community for assistance. I know that my response is strong but I cannot impress upon you the clear potential of how very serious this situation might become in the future. There is little more devastating than to have developed a close and bonding relationship with this little gal and then have her suddenly become quite dangerous and unmanageable in a few more years. Unfortunately, you seem to have been handed most of the recipe for future heartbreak and disaster.  The good news is that with the addition of another llama companion and the assistance of llama folks in your area, there is a very good possibility that things can work out well for all of you.

Regarding coyotes, llamas are not really guardians but rather sentinels. Guard llamas are typically the "first alert system" sounding the alarm and rounding up their charges. As a defender, however, they are prey animals themselves and do not have much power to truly defend against an actual attack. Additionally, not all llamas are well suited as a sentinel/guard. It is normally not so easy to judge the potential of whether one will or will not possess those traits until they are much older than she is.

If you would want to discuss your situation further, I am available for consultations. Please see my Consultations Page for more information.

My Best To You,
Cathy

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